I read in an old thread that using an electric hand planer is not a good idea and should be avoided. However, I got some pretty good results today on some scrap wood. I can't affoard to buy a planer and have had no luck finding one to use, should I keep looking or practing more on the hand planer and go for it? I've got a hand plane as well but the results were about the same as the electric but took quite a bit longer.Just about to start my build and this is the only thing holding me back.

Brave souls use electric hand planers . . . Godspeed.

I use hand planes a lot and I like it.

Also, if you change your mind I can highly recommend the Dewalt 13" planer. Recond'ed or re-packaged ones come up on Ebay regularly for a reasonable price. I love mine . . . it's perfect for luthiery.

Hi.

+1 for the brave souls comment.

Power is nothing without control, and the electric hand-plane does have plenty of power, but... ;).

One big con in using the electric hand plane IME is the virtually impossible sharpening of the blades. If You want to keep the quality of the cut good, replacing the blades gets really expensive, really fast. In construction work (their intended use) the quality/accuracy of the cut isn't usually that important.

I stick to the hand planes for the time being, that is after all ages old, well proven method.

Regards
Sam